Can I Have A Hug, Please?
by Ninoandjaffar
Summary: FE:7 So, just how bad a day can Serra have? Well, I say a very bad day. But it's ok, because there is always some one there for you! SerraXErk


Fire Emblem Fan-Fiction #4

**Can I have a hug, please?**

By: Ninoandjaffar

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem, any of its characters, songs, or story plots. I do own a cartridge I bought at Meijer's with the data on it.

The morning sunlight shown in a beautiful gold as the young cleric woke up. The sun had already risen from the horizon as the girl rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes. As she got out of bed, she reached for the white dress hung neatly over a chair in the tent she shared with her companion, Priscilla. She quickly brushed her hair and put it up into the orchid piggy tails she was known for as her stomach let out a growl of discontent.

As she stepped out of the tent, she was not met with the peace of birds singing their morning songs, but the sound of metal as soldiers ran through the encampment. She stood dumbfounded for a moment before being brought back to reality.

"SERRA!" She heard. It came from the tactician of the army, Mark. She hurried over, realizing he was in a foul mood.

"Yes, sir," She smiled to him.

"You are late! Every soldier, including healers, is supposed to be up before the sun is completely over the horizon! If you look, you would see it is four fingers over the horizon. How do you explain yourself?"

"Well," She calmly started. "A beautiful young girl like me does need beauty sleep every now and then. Be thankful this is the first time this has happened."

"Bah," He let out a cry of frustration. "I don't have time for this. I need you to join that group. It's small, but they still need a healer." He pointed to the edge of the forest where three men were gathered.

Serra looked at the group. The first person she noticed was Lucius. He was so gorgeous; she had previously mistaken him for a woman. The next person was Raven. He was always with the golden-haired monk. His hard eyes were always watching everyone. The final person in the group was none other that Serra's arch-nemesis, Erk. He never seemed to like her presence and always thought of her as a nuisance.

Her eyes grew in horror. "You are NOT putting me with that group! One grumpy guy I can handle, but two with a gender-confused monk…NO WAY!"

Mark's face went red with anger. "You will NOT question my authority! Now get over there, now." Mark stormed off to make sure everyone else was doing what they were supposed to be. And with that, Serra made her way to her worst nightmare.

Raven looked up from sharpening his blade. "Oh, great; get ready; we have the great Princess Serra with us." He said sarcastically.

Erk let out a sigh. "I feel sorry for the unfortunate sole she chooses as her victim today…"

"Come now, can she truly be that bad?" Lucius said optimistically. The other two looked at him with bewildered eyes.

The group had decided that a sneak attack would be the best option due to the numbers the small team would be facing. As they entered the forest, things started out quietly. But silence is easily broken.

Serra, bored from no one talking to her, shuffled her feet in the fall leaves while humming a little tune in a loud dynamic. Her singing was quite off tune, but she was enjoying every note.

Her teammates were not in the least bit impressed with her singing, and it ruined the whole point of a 'sneak' attack. Erk was the bravest of them, deciding to do something about the atrocious singing.

"Serra, is it humanly possible for your mouth to make no sounds for any amount of time?" He quite rudely asked.

"Humph, do you have a problem with my beautiful humming?" She sneered back at the young mage.

"Why yes, I do. I've also a problem with your big feet!"

"Why you insulting little…"

"Now Serra," Lucius interrupted. "Please do not argue with him. We are supposed to be allies."

"Oh, and what makes you think you have any say in this, freak? And YOU," She pointed to the red-haired mercenary. "If you dare say ANYTHING to interfere with this, I can personally guarantee that you will not be able to scold anyone with those awful eyes any more!"

Lucius moved closer to Raven out of fear that she might rip their heads off that very instance.

"That was uncalled for, Serra. Lucius was only trying to help and Raven had said nothing so far!" Erk yelled back to her.

"They shouldn't be on your side to begin with! You are so rude and un-honorable, how could anyone side with a man who would DARE call a beautiful girl's feet big?"

"Shut up," Raven calmly said, gathering everyone's attention. "The enemy is close, if you don't put aside this dispute, we could all die right here."

Serra took a deep breath and gave Erk a defeated look. He took this as her sign to stop the fight.

"Now then," The mercenary continued. "If we charge them quickly enough, we should be able to defeat most of them before they know what's going on. Serra," He looked to the young cleric. "I want you to say here. They will kill you without hesitation. That and you have caused enough trouble for one day. Let's go."

And with that, the threesome moved out to kill the enemy, leaving Serra all by herself. She boiled in her own rage.

"I cannot believe he said that!" She ranted to herself. "I have done nothing to cause trouble, and he dared to say I did. And Erk! He is so rude; I don't know how he plans to find a girl with an attitude like that. Humph. Men are so stupid. I don't know why Saint Elimine would dare to keep them on the earth."

Unbeknownst to her, an enemy mercenary started approaching her from behind. She quickly turned around to see his blade high in the air. Lunging to the left she was able to avoid injury.

As she checked for injuries, she watched as thick strands of orchid hair cascaded toward the ground. She let out a gasp as the last strands touched the dirt. Her face became filled with rage, and she charged at the mercenary, smacking him on the side of his head with her staff.

Just as she thought she could be victorious, he raised his blade to start another attack. He ran towards her again, and as his blade was about to kill her, his body started to erupt into flame. She watched as the doomed man flailed his arms and crumpled to the ground, where he was nothing more than a pile of ash.

Serra looked behind her to see Erk panting with his elfire tome open and his hand extended. He relaxed and walked over to the cleric.

"Are you unharmed?" He asked her emotionlessly.

"Well, of course I'm fine. I had the whole situation under control. I could have handled him myself." She boasted.

"Yes, because morphs can be killed with a heal staff." Erk said to himself. "Anyways," He addressed her. "We need to catch up to the group."

"Fine,"

The two headed towards the group. In a small clearing, it looked like the whole army was encircled around one fairly small point, those on the outside fighting to see what happened. As they approached, a gap opened with Hector and Dorcus carrying Raven. His body was limp and unconscious, blood dripping a small trail where he was carried.

Serra could only let out a small gasp before the tactician walked up to her. His face was redder than a ripe cherry. The anger seemed to seep out of him like an infectious disease.

"Serra," He quietly grumbled. "How could you let this happen?" His voice crescendoed into a yell. "You only had three people to heal! Three! If we cannot work as a team at this point, how do we plan to defeat Nergal!?" He stormed off, to frustrated to form coherent words.

She watched as others followed him, first being the weeping Priscilla. Others silently went back to camp until Serra was all alone. She too headed back to camp to get some food.

As she got back, she decided to take a longer rout than usual to get some extra time alone. She walked along a thin path in the middle of a thick growth of trees. Her feet seemed to drag as her depression was apparent. She started a sigh, but was interrupted as her foot got caught in the root of a tree. She fell forward, yelling at the top of her lunges, until her face splashed into the mud pile that accumulated from the rain the night before.

After a moment, she picked herself up and looked at herself. Her favorite white dress was now an atrocious shade of brown, as were her gloves. She reached for her heal staff, only to find out it was busted. The blue orb on the top was shattered and spilling the magic blue substance in the mud puddle, though Serra found 'pond' to be more fitting.

As horrible as she felt, she continued back to camp. As she walked, her feet made a squishing sound with every step. After a moment, she was reminded of Erk's words from earlier that day: "I've also a problem with your big feet…"

Anger filled the cleric to the point where she kicked the shoe into the air. It twirled in the sky for a short moment before descending back to the ground. Unfortunately for Serra, she stood right at its landing spot. The shoe fell on her head, causing her to grunt as the shoe thudded on the ground. She rubbed her head to be rid of the pain, then continued walking, leaving the shoe where it rested.

The tent became visible after only a moment. She could hear the faint sobbing of her tent mate, Priscilla. Serra was one of the few people who knew Raven and Priscilla's secret…their sibling-ship.

Serra entered the tent to see Priscilla's red eyes looking at the barely living man. The only movement he made was the subtle rising and lowering of his chest. She walked over to her bed and opened her pack.

"Hello, Serra," The young girl said in between sniffles.

"Hello," Serra quietly responded. "Did you want some alone time?"

"If you don't mind, it would be appreciated."

"No problem," The cleric said as she walked out of the tent with a wash cloth. Priscilla watched in utter amazement that Serra was able to have an entire conversation without saying something rude or unthinkable.

As she left, her stomach once again made a loud growl. Rebecca was good at keeping meal times consistent, so Serra knew lunch would be soon. So she made her next destination the center of camp.

Serra kept walking through the mass of people, not stopping to say a single word as many of them gave her harsh glares. She walked up to Rebecca as the green-haired archer poured another bowl of stew for her friend, Lowen. He smiled to her as he walked off, and Serra saw this as her opportunity to get some food, since Lowen was famous for eating the most food in the army.

Rebecca let out a gasp as she saw Serra. "What happened to you?" She asked, shocked by her appearance. She noticed the chopped off piggy tail, the missing shoe, the discolored dress, and the broken staff.

Serra could only manage to growl one word. "Bandits,"

"Oh, dear me; let me help you with your hair. I'll even it out so it looks pretty." She pulled on Serra's arm to get her closer. She pulled out a small pocket knife and cut the other piggy tail. She also pulled out the holders and let the orchid hair flow down her neck. "Now that looks a lot better, doesn't it?" Rebecca smiled to her.

Serra just looked upset, and the archer's smile soon faded.

"Can I get some food now?" The cleric asked.

"Sure," Rebecca's smile returned as she grabbed a bowl and the ladle from the pot. Her expression turned to confusion. "I'm sorry, I guess Lowen ate the last of the stew… but I could fix you something else." She looked up to see that Serra was already gone, and shrugged it off.

Serra was walking towards a pond on the outskirts of the encampment. She knelt down next to the waters edge and looked into it. She saw a girl with short hair on the verge of tears and mud covering her face. She could feel the tears well up in her eyes, but fought them away.

She dipped the wash cloth in the water and started to wipe the mud away. As she did so, a slight trickle of rain started up. Serra looked up towards the heavens as the droplets fell on her.

"Saint Elimine," She started. "My day could not get any worse. Not at all,"

But she had spoken too soon.

Only a few seconds later, the rain picked up, eventually turning into a downpour.

Serra slammed her fist against the freshly soaked ground. "I can't take it any more!" She screamed as a cascade of tears fell down her cheeks, mixing with the rain.

Serra stumbled her way back to the camp with an intent-filled stride. She walked up to one of the tents and opened the flap.

Erk sat on his cot, reading his favorite book: _The Compositional Theory of Anima Magic, Volume 8. _His reading was disturbed when the tent opened. Without looking at the person, he knew who it was. Only one person would dare to open his tent without warning him first.

"What do you want now, Serra?" He asked slightly irritated.

She fought the urge to burst into tears. "Erk,"

Her voice was so soft, he hardly recognized it. He quickly looked away from his book to see the cleric standing in his tent, drenched in rain. His eyes widened, and he quickly went and gave her a blanket.

"Thank you," She said as he wrapped it around her shoulders.

"What happened to you?" He asked, this time sincerely.

"I…I have been having…the worst day…ever!" She broke into a wave of tears.

"Oh, is there anything I can do for you?"

She wiped away the tears and cleared her throat. "Can I have a hug, please?"

Startled at her request, Erk found he couldn't refuse her. He wrapped his arms around her, only to be hugged himself as a new wave a tears fell down her face.

After a moment, he released her, keeping his hands on her shoulders.

"Erk," She stumbled to say. "You don't…hate me, do you?"

He looked at her in surprise. "No, of course I don't hate you. In truth, Serra…I love you."

The End


End file.
